The Diamondbacks came up just shy of the postseason. Arizona mi sed out on the final Wild Card spot via tiebreaker after the Mets and Braves split Mondays doubleheader to each punch their ticket. In the immediate aftermath of that disappointment, the clubs owner provided a scathing criticism of one of the teams biggest offseason moves. Owner Ken Kendrick appeared on on Monday afternoon. Asked about the teams late free agent pickup of , the owner both took responsibility for the signing while not holding back with an indictment of the southpaws performance. If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, youre talking to the guy that should be blamed, Kendrick said (starting around the 12:45 mark). Because I brought it to (the front offices) attention. I pushed for it. They agreed to it. It wasnt in our game plan. And looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. Its our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint. And Im the perpetrator of that. Its the kind of public criticism that an owner rarely levels at a player who remains on the roster. Montgomerys $25MM deal contained a vesting player option for the upcoming season. That was initially valued at $20MM and the veteran pushed that to $22.5MM by reaching 18 starts. Hes certainly not going to walk away from that sum after this season, so hell at least go into the offseason on the Arizona roster. Montgomerys 2024 campaign was very underwhelming. He allowed a 6.23 earned run average through 117 innings while striking out a career-low 15.6% of batters faced. Montgomery had an ERA above 5.00 in every month from May onward. He lost his spot in the John Torchio Jersey rotation late in the year when outperformed him for the fifth starter job. Montgomery stepped back into the rotation with Nelson on the injured list in the seasons final couple weeks. He allowed three runs without completing five innings in either of his final two starts games which Arizona dropped in Colorado and Milwaukee respectively. Kendrick certainly isnt alone in being frustrated with Montgomerys performance. Its neverthele s surprising to see an owner publicly call a free agent signing a horrible decision while that player is still on the team. General manager Mike Hazen conducted his annual end-of-season pre s conference on Tuesday. As one would expect, the GM took a more diplomatic tone when asked about Kendricks statement. Hazen began by stating that as the leader of baseball operations, he is ultimately responsible to say no or yes to a lot of things (relayed by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports). The GM called the Montgomery signing a group proce s before stating that he expects better results in 2025. Whatever myriad of factors went into this year it didnt work out. It didnt work out, but I also think next year is going to look a lot different, Hazen concluded. The GMs comments are far more typical in these kinds of situations. Even if the Montgomery signing was driven by ownership, Hazen isnt likely to take a public jab at Kendrick. One can debate how sincerely Hazen expects Montgomery to rebound, though its hard to imagine he wont improve to some extent. Before this season, the 66 lefty had been one of the more consistent pitchers in MLB. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA with 30+ starts in each year from 2021-23. Montgomerys late signing deprived him of a normal Spring Training. In August, Montgomery opined that former agent Scott Boras his free agency. Thats presumably a reference both to the one-year guarantee that fell well shy of expectations and his late landing in the desert. Montgomery changed his representation within weeks of signing with Arizona. Kendricks comments figure to further speculation that the D-Backs could try to trade Montgomery this offseason. Thatd probably have a goal for the front office in either case. Theyre not going to find anyone willing to take on his entire salary, but the Snakes could try to explore an undesirable contract swap of some kind. Arizona goes into the offseason with a projected rotation of , , , and Nelson. Thats a talented group on paper, but only Gallen and Nelson performed up to expectations late in the year. Pfaadt posted an ERA near 6.00 after the All-Star Break, while Rodriguez and Kelly battled shoulder injuries and didnt pitch at their typical level during the playoff push. Brian Asamoah Jersey